Did you know that Hampshire has a ballooning history all of its own? Home to Adventure Balloons, Farnborough, Hampshire has its own bit of ballooning history!

It was in 1905 that the Governments Balloon Factory moved to Farnborough; prior to this it had been based not far away in Aldershot and before that, Woolwich. The factory took over common land which has since gone on to become the home of the internationally known Farnborough Airshow! It continued to be known as the Balloon Factory for only 6 more years, at which time it changed its name in quick succession to the Army Aircraft Factory and the Royal Aircraft Factory. It was in 1916 that they ceased the manufacturing of balloons on the site, but continued to manufacture fixed wing aircrafts. It was a later name change in 1918 that saw it become the Royal Aircraft Establishment.

Ever heard of the Kite balloon, the one which includes tail fins for stability in the wind? These were developed here and used in both World Wars. The first Airship flew from Farnborough to London in October 1907 but returned by road, deflated. There were other airships and balloons which were built in Farnborough, however they were gradually overshadowed by the aeroplane.

There is an abundance of information about the factory at Royal Engineers Museum, why not check it out for more interesting facts!?

TIMELINE

1878 War Office Balloon Equipment Store opened in Woolwich.

1892 Balloon Factory moves to Aldershot

1905 Balloon Factory moves to Farnborough

1911 Changes name to Army Aircraft Factory

1912 Changes name to Royal Aircraft Factory

1916 Ceased Balloon manufacture

1918 Changes name to Royal Aircraft Establishment

Now that the weather is beginning to cheer up, we urge all those of you who have hot air ballooning vouchers to go ahead and book your date! Remember, each voucher is valid for a maximum of 12 months from the date of purchase, so you must book your flight within this time frame! And what better time to do it than May, while the weather is picking up and you’re so much more likely to fly while the weathers good!

If you’re a new customer however, and you do not already have a voucher, all you need to do is log into the Adventure Balloons website and browse through our selection of stunning British locations. We fly from Oxford, Reading, Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage, Watford, Tring, London, Basingstoke, Hartley Wintney, Guildford, Farnham, Godalming, Great Missenden, West Meon, Alton, Winchester, Micheldever, Kent, Rutland, Stamford, Sussex, Essex and York! We’ve carefully selected our launch sites so that they are positioned in town parks unique to Adventure Balloons and other easily accessible locations. Our choice of sites give passengers the added interest of both town and countryside views throughout their flights so you can be sure that every time, you will be wowed!

Once you have chosen your location, go to Dates, and find it in the drop down menu, alternatively, select ‘don’t mind’. Next choose the amount of seats you require in the next drop down menu and click ‘Check Available Dates’. You will then be given a list of flights appropriate to your choices. When you find one that suits you, click the ‘Book Now’ tab next to it.

If however you’d rather contact a member of the team to discuss your flight, special arrangements or anything else, then do feel free to either call on 01252 844222 or email.

Many large companies, particularly specialising in sales and target driven environments, are made up of various different teams and departments all working towards different goals. As manager or director of the firm or teams, you will be required to find incentives for your staff. If and when they reach their target, they are rewarded, or alternatively, the team reaching the highest score, or best outcome, is rewarded.

As the ‘leader’, you will be oh too aware of how if those rewards are a constant (for example every time it is a meal out, a voucher, theme park tickets, a day off etc) this can become boring and your staff will begin to lose morale. Vary the reward a little, mix it up; if you can find a treat each time that gives the ‘wow’ factor, you can be sure your staff will compete, working at their hardest in order to win the unique prise. Here’s where we come in!

At Adventure Balloons we offer various different passenger balloon rides so that you can choose the one that best suits you! You can either view our available dates booking a place for when its convenient which can cost as little as £89! Or alternatively, you can choose from one of the following voucher options;

Champagne Balloon Flight – Weekday Morning

Normally £105 – Special Offer Save £10 and fly for just £95 PER PERSON

• Valid for flights from Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Oxford, Surrey and Yorkshire
• Weekday mornings April – October
• Includes full colour gift voucher valid for 12 calendar months, flight in a hot air balloon, passenger insurance, traditional Champagne toast and presentation of flight certificate with return to the take off site by licensed minibus
• Available by post or INSTANTLY to the e-mail address of your choice

Champagne Balloon Flight – Weekday

Normally £125 – Special Offer Save £10 and fly for £115 PER PERSON

• Valid for flights from Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Oxford, Surrey and York
• Available weekdays April-October
• Includes full colour gift voucher valid for 12 calendar months, flight in a hot air balloon, passenger insurance, traditional Champagne toast and presentation of flight certificate with return to the take off site by licensed minibus
• Available by post or INSTANTLY to the e-mail address of your choice

Champagne Balloon Flight – Standard

Normally £145 – Special Offer save £10 and fly with us for £135 PER PERSON

• Valid for flights from Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lincolnshire, Oxford, Surrey, Sussex and York
• Weekdays and weekends April – October
• Includes full colour gift voucher valid for 12 calendar months, flight in a hot air balloon, passenger insurance, traditional Champagne toast and presentation of flight certificate with return to the take off site by licensed minibus
• Available by post or INSTANTLY to the e-mail address of your choice

Champagne Balloon Flight – London

Normally £199 – Spring Offer Save £20 and fly for just £179 PER PERSON
THIS OFFER ENDS 1st MAY SO BOOK NOW FOR THIS SPECIAL PRICE

• Our London flights are scheduled on weekday mornings only, from late April to mid August, meeting shortly after dawn.

• Please make sure you have read and understood our SMALL PRINT on the London Flights page of our web site before purchasing this voucher.
• Includes full colour gift voucher valid for 12 calendar months, flight in a hot air balloon, passenger insurance, traditional Champagne toast and presentation of flight certificate
• Available by post or INSTANTLY to the e-mail address of your choice

To discuss further or find out more about what we can do for your company, feel free to get in touch on 01252 844222.

What better way to celebrate a summer birthday than flying 2,000 feet in the air in a hot air balloon?! If you’re looking for style, then this is certainly the way to celebrate the big day! Maybe you’re booking your own birthday adventure, or you could be planning a surprise for someone dear to you. Imagine their expression when they open their card to find hot air ballooning vouchers inside, something most people only dream of! However hot air ballooning these days is highly affordable; there’s no need to dream anymore!

Here at Adventure Balloons we operate passenger balloon rides all over the UK and even specialise in specific birthday balloon flights. We have a range of HAPPY BIRTHDAY balloons which will cater to 2-4 people, and even some which take 16 passengers up for a party affair! What an experience! So regardless of whether it’s your child’s 16^th, 18^th, or your pal’s 21^st, or maybe it’s your partners big 30^th, those significant birthdays can be celebrated in perfection with us!

Here at Adventure Balloons we take pride in the fact that we are the UK’s only Happy Birthday Balloon Flights Operator! We have been operating birthday balloons since the year 2000 and it is thanks to their success that we now have a fleet which will accommodate the various group size demands.

When booking a date for your flight, just check with our staff for available dates to fly in these balloons at no extra charge. Birthday balloon flights are available on most of our balloon flights in Berkshire, Hampshire, Lincolnshire, Oxford, Surrey and York, however if you’d like to discuss this further or you have specialist requirements, do feel free to discuss these with a member of our team on 01252 844222.

Is this really sunshine we’re seeing out there?! Here in England we’ve been enjoying the glorious sun’s rays and warmth for the last few days and we’re all keeping our fingers crossed that it will last out for the bank holiday weekend, at least! I’m sure the majority of us have BBQ’s planned! Maybe now is that perfect time to book your slot for hot air ballooning!

Many of our customers are given vouchers for a gift and have been waiting to book a date where the weather will be perfect. This doesn’t come around very often living in Britain, and so you must grab your chances where you can! Now is that perfect slot so get booking. However if you do not have a voucher yet but you’d still like to fly, don’t panic! We have plenty of tickets available for you from morning, to afternoon, weekend to weekday! You simply select the voucher which best suits your time restraints. Alternatively however you can simply select a date from our ‘available dates’ lists which then offers you a seat on one of our passenger flights on that date. Scroll through the dates, select the number of spaces you require and you’re away!

We do have a great selection of locations to fly from offering you the most scenic views Britain has to offer Oxford, Reading, Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage, Watford, Tring, London, Basingstoke, Hartley Wintney, Guildford, Farnham, Godalming, Great Missenden, West Meon, Alton, Winchester, Micheldever, Kent, Rutland, Stamford, Sussex, Essex and York.

You’ll find that many of our sites are in town parks, unique to Adventure Balloons where you’ll also find that they are easily accessible! Our launch sites are ideal for friends to come and wave you off and offer the added interest of both town and countryside views during the flight. For more information about what to expect from each of our locations, take a look at our website where you will find the answers to all of your questions along with the facilities to book your flight!

Now that the warmer weather is creeping in (touch wood, touch wood, touch wood‼) and we can kiss goodbye to the snow, we all have our spring heads on, and the optimists among us, summer heads. It’s time to look beyond the harsh winter we’ve experienced and delayed start to spring and instead get planning what we would like to do to welcome the beginning of the better weather. Such positivity forms as the buds appear on the trees, and with each daffodil, a new smile. The smell in the air as Spring begins to blossom changes our attitudes and gives even the most depressed a new sense of happiness, adventure! It is at this time that many people decide to mark the coming of summer, as if to enforce it. Booking a holiday, a weekend or a day trip, it all gives us something positive to look forward to and what better way to bring in the summer than to be at one with it – in the sky overlooking the beautiful grounds below in their full summer attire!

At Adventure Balloons we specialise in superior passenger hot air balloon flights across the UK and offer an experience which is unrivalled by any other balloon flights company. Tailoring each flight to suit the customer, we take great pleasure in providing a unique service each time, guaranteed to muster ooooh’s and ahhhhh’s from even the most rigid and sceptical of passengers. One of our most popular flight locations for example is Surrey.

Our Surrey Balloon Flights launch from the beautiful Farnham, endearing Godalming and of course not forgetting Guildford, our personal favourite. We launch from Shalford Park in Guildford which is next to St Catherines Chapel and from the Burys in Godalming next to the River Wey. We also launch from Farnham Park, a gorgeous spot, next to Farnham Castle, which delightfully retains its multitude of architectural styles built over the many centuries!

Your flight will offer you the opportunity to see many beautiful wonders such as Guildford Cathedral, Frensham Ponds, Loseley House and Alice Holt Forest. You may even pass over small villages such as Churt and Puttenham or the ruins of Waverley Abbey or Black Lake where A.A. Milne was inspired to write Winnie the Pooh! However what you will see on the day remains a mystery, as due to the engineering of a hot air balloon, we are completely reliant of wind direction!

In order to ensure that we provide you with a safe and enjoyable flight, we will chose the site on the day and it will be completely dependent on the wind direction and speed as well as any other operational factors. However whichever site we use, remember Surrey’s stated claim of having more trees than any other county in the country!

For more information you can visit the website, or alternatively call a member of the team on 01252 844222. Booking couldn’t be easier; simply visit the website and browse our locations and available dates, then simply book your slot! If you are buying a voucher for a loved one, or unsure of where and when you’d like to fly however, you can buy a hot air ballooning voucher which enables you to book at a time of your choosing. Happy Spring everyone!

Choosing your hot air balloon flight company isn’t always easy, particularly as there are so many different operators available. There are many things you need to consider about hot air ballooning, so that you can be fully prepared for what you have in store for you.

Firstly, when you buy a balloon flight voucher you must remember that it could be several months after you have paid, before you actually take your flight! This could be due to cancellations because of the weather, but often customers or recipients wait for the perfect date before they actually book their slot!

In these difficult economic times it’s always advised to check out any company thoroughly before you buy their product or service online. You need to be sure that the company you choose will have the money to be able to fly you when you book your flight. Here at Adventure Balloons we have always ensured that the full amount of money we receive from passengers is kept in our bank to cover those passengers who are yet to fly! However some companies are not so careful with your money.

We advise that you always make sure you know the name of the company you are dealing with. By law it should be on their web site along with their address and registered number. You can find our details at the bottom of every page on our web site. However some web sites may only show their details on the “contact” page or they may call themselves by a different name to the company that runs them! Although this is perfectly legal, and called using a “trading name”, it means you will have to be that bit more thorough when checking the company out.

When you have the company name, simply go to www.companycheck.co.uk. This is a free web site which enables you to carry out simple checks against companies by simply entering their company name or number into the homepage. Once you have entered the company name, options will appear below for you to select the correct one. Using the search feature, you can then see the company’s details from COMPANIES HOUSE, the Government’s body that makes sure companies file their accounts etc properly. Select the ACCOUNTS tab and you will see “KEY FINANCIALS”. This fantastic feature will show what has been happening for the last few years. Of course ideally you want to book with a company that actually has cash in the bank to the same amount or more than its total current liabilities. You should always aim to see select a company whose graph shows gradual growth (rising) rather than going downhill or up and down frequently.

Looking at the figures of Adventure Balloons we hope you will see that even during these difficult economic times, we consistently run a good company with a decent financial standing that is increasing with time. We may not be quite the cheapest option; however we can guarantee that we will actually be here when you come to take your flight with us! We’re proud of who we are here at Adventure Balloons and of our roots; founded in 1985, we are the longest running balloon flight provider in the country that is still ran by its original owners! For more information, simply call us on 01252 844222.

London is one of the most sought after hot air balloon flight locations with many customers excited to take a flight over our capital city of London. City flights are available exclusively with us at Adventure Balloons, and our specialist balloon rides will offer you breathtaking views of some of the most famous buildings and architecture in the country! Just imagine drifting over the beautiful London skyline, enjoying a perfect 360 degree unhindered view, as if you were a bird! You will literally be re-enacting the exploits of the pilot who flew over London 200 years ago, witnessing some of the very same, unchanged landmarks!

A flight over London offers you the opportunity to get a unique perspective over the O2 arena (formerly the Millennium Stadium), Buckingham Palace, Wembley Stadium, the London Eye and Houses of Parliament to name but a few! We cannot predict exactly which direction the wind will take us, as so you will learn that each flight is completely unique and a real surprise for our passengers!

We require good visibility, no rain and the correct wind direction in order for a flight to commence in London. It is pivotal that the balloon stays out of restricted airspace and also heads towards a suitable landing site and so because of this, London flights are more likely to be cancelled than any other location in the UK. Worry not however, in the event of a cancellation, your flight will be rescheduled for the earliest convenient date and as we are told by all of our customers; it is well worth the wait!

Your flight will launch from various sites along the River Thames, where you will meet shortly after dawn. Passengers are invited to participate in the inflation of the balloon which is followed by a pre-flight safety briefing, after this, the flight will commence! Lasting for approximately one hour, your flight will be accompanied by an in-flight photo which you will be given the opportunity to purchase after landing. You will receive a commemorative flight certificate and a champagne toast just to sum up the whole experience!

As we are reaching the end of April, the start of our city flights is near! So if you’re interested in a city adventure, make sure to book your dream London flight as soon as possible as flights for this location sell out fast! 01252 844222

Following on from our last two articles in which we took the opportunity to tell you all about what we get up to during the ‘out of season period’, we thought we’d give you further insight into what Adventure Balloons do during the winter months!

It is said that it’s because we sit out on the edge of the Atlantic, that the British Isles are ‘blessed’ with such difficult and unpredictable weather conditions. It is believed that this is the reason why our sailors and of course our balloonists, are some of the best trained in the world! So of course us Brits must travel further afield for better ballooning weather, and during the winter months, what else are we going to do?

One ideal place is Italy, which is as we all know, blessed with gorgeous weather conditions! Italy enjoys beautiful mornings for flying during a very high percentage of the northern hemisphere’s main balloon flying season (from April to October). Here at Adventure Balloons we thought it high time to pay Italy a little visit and so we called upon a fellow Lindstrand Balloons customer – Balloon In Tuscany – who provide hot air balloon rides over the Tuscan countryside in Italy.

Balloon In Tuscany operate most mornings of the week from a location in the Chianti, which is a wine producing area of Tuscany midway between Florence, Sienna and the beautiful town of San Gimignano. They fly small balloons with a maximum of 4 or 5 passengers in the basket and can also provide balloon flights for disabled passengers in wheelchairs! Just like us, the firm have been operating for nearly 30 years and were one of the first places you could go ballooning in Italy! So again, like us, they have a wealth of experience which can only mean they are the best source of ballooning in Tuscany in which you can be sure of a memory that will last you a lifetime!

It’s not often that we at Adventure Balloons turns to our customers for help, however we have a rather pressing matter and feel we really must seek the help of our dedicated followers!

On a few occasions now we have spotted the most tremendous heart shaped balloon in flight, which has left us puzzled and amazed! The enormous heart shaped hot air balloon has been spotted flying in our area, which is intriguing, as we’re the only passenger balloon flights company that covers these skies!

We were lucky enough to capture a photograph of the balloon, however to date we only have this photo which clearly shows the heart shaped shadow of the balloon. If any of you are lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the balloon, please try to photograph it for us! We need proof! Explanations please to http://www.adventureballoons.co.uk/contact-us – we’re waiting for your contact!